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Gambino Crime Boss or Not, Peter Gotti Gets 9-Year Term

Peter Gotti, the older brother of the deceased mobster John J. Gotti and the reputed acting head of the Gambino crime family, was sentenced yesterday to nine years and four months in federal prison for money laundering and racketeering.

Mr. Gotti's lawyer, Gerald L. Shargel, asked Judge Frederic Block of United States District Court in Brooklyn to impose a lighter sentence because Mr. Gotti, 64, a retired garbageman, was at most a mob boss in name only and is in poor health.

But Judge Block said that while the record ''strongly suggests that Peter Gotti did not exhibit leadership characteristics,'' he was ''indeed a leader,'' whose position required a stiff sentence.

Mr. Shargel said that with credit for time already served and other reductions, Mr. Gotti could finish his sentence in as little as six years. Mr. Gotti, however, is also facing up to 70 years in prison on separate federal charges that he took part in an unsuccessful 1999 plot to kill the Mafia turncoat Sammy Gravano. That case is scheduled to go to trial in June in Manhattan.

The sentencing came two weeks after a woman linked to Mr. Gotti, Marjorie Alexander, 43, killed herself in a Long Island motel. While Mr. Gotti's lawyers have said he was devastated by the woman's death, Mr. Shargel referred to it only indirectly.

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Peter Gotti and six others, including another brother, Richard V. Gotti, were indicted in 2002 on charges that included corrupt control of a longshoremen's union local, illegal gambling and extorting money from the movie star Steven Seagal.

Peter Gotti was accused of meeting regularly with a Gambino soldier who gave him the proceeds of the family's illegal activities. In March 2003, all the defendants were convicted in what prosecutors described as a heavy blow to an already weakened Gambino organization.

Mr. Shargel told Judge Block that Mr. Gotti is blind in one eye and suffers from thyroid goiter, sciatica, emphysema, rheumatoid arthritis, postconcussion syndrome and depression, and that a long prison stay could be further ruinous to his health.

As for Mr. Gotti's stewardship of the mob, Mr. Shargel said: ''Peter Gotti may have had the title of acting boss, but I don't think there's anyone who knows Peter Gotti who thinks he has managerial capacity, if you will. I don't think there's anyone who knows Peter Gotti who thinks he was making important decisions, if you will.''

Some law enforcement officials have said that the Gotti family's role in the Gambino family is on the wane. But J. Kevin McGowan, assistant police chief of the Waterfront Commission of New York Harbor, said that Mr. Gotti remains the boss.

''Whatever show there is left,'' Chief McGowan said, ''he still runs it.''

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A version of this article appears in print on April 16, 2004, on Page B00003 of the National edition with the headline: Gambino Crime Boss or Not, Peter Gotti Gets 9-Year Term. Order Reprints|Today's Paper|Subscribe